Recently, I was watching a video by Brandon Gilbert from Hyperion Nutrition and he talked about something which caught my attention. He spoke about how our concept of health is actually misguided in many ways. We have individual goals for our health, which could be different for each person at different times, yet we often act as if their is one overall true form of health. This sets us up into a situation where we might not have a clear direction. We seek this overall concept of health, which many of us believe is one tangible true state, but we are not necessarily utilizing what we have available to get there because we don't have specific goals or an understanding of what health is to us. In other words, instead of focusing on fluidity and clear thinking as a direct applicable health goal, we seek this unspecified, often illusory state, that has no room for growth. As a result, we can feel we're either healthy or we're not, which sets us up for lack of motivation. If this model of health works for you keep it, however, if it doesn't there are some more empowering ways to view health.

Set up a clear goal for your health at this point. This may be different from the general viewpoint of health. Have reasons for wanting to feel better and find ways to do that. For example, you might want more flexibility and see that something health promoting so you decide to incorporate yoga into your life and eat more calming, relaxation inducing foods and herbs like green vegetables. This is something you can work toward and see results.

Some people, however, might do better just moving in the direction of overall health verses having specific goals. This can also be useful if you view it in an empowering way verses considering health something that you should work toward without feeling inspired to do it.

In this video Brandon tells what he feels is the "true backbone of health". He gives this explanation to give health a tangible aspect to give our attention to and work on for results. You might have a different viewpoint, however, and that is equally valid. In general, though, he suggests using health to achieve direct goals and states of wellbeing verses viewing it in a dualistic way of either healthy or not healthy. The typical doctor oriented way of categorizing health is often not very inspiring for people, however, setting goals to increase your ability to be in the moment and resillient to any stress that you encounter is something you can work toward and find tools along the way to help get you there.